Finance Officer

A. Job Summary:

To provide management accounting support for assigned projects or country office in line with policies and procedures and donor agreement. The Finance Officer supports the Finance manager in ensuring the accurate, complete and timely financial review and management for an assigned portfolio of awards/projects. This position works closely with implementing teams on financial analysis, and interprets and provides guidance on both donor regulations and AMREF policies and procedures compliance.  The Finance Office is responsible for internal and external project reporting, and proactively monitors budget variances for corrective actions as may be required.  Collaborating closely with the disbursement accountant and the Logistics & Procurement team, the finance officer acts as the initial reviewer of all organizational procurements, providing guidance to purchasers on compliance requirements and best practices for the full procurement life cycle.   

The Finance Officer is responsible for three keys areas of accountability:

1. Budgeting ( Country office and projects)
2. Project Financial Reporting ( internal and external) 
3. Compliance to  donors and organizational  policies and procedure

B. Specific Responsibilities:

1. Budgeting ( Country office and projects)

• • Develop all proposal budget for assigned portfolio
  • Prepare annual operational budgets for assigned projects and the country office by determining funds available for the budget, activities scheduled for the year and their cost and translating these to an operational budget in AMREF HEALTH AFRICA IN ETHIOPIA format.
  • Supports implementing teams with the development of project budgets and realignment requests.  Ensures budget justification narratives are comprehensive and adequately developed in order to assist in successful implementation efforts and reduce potential disallowances of costs.
  • Prepare monthly project cashflow /cash request for assigned project

1. Project Financial Reporting ( internal and external) 

• • Prepares accurate and timely, periodic financial reports for donors in compliance with both donor and AMREF policies and procedures for management’s review.
  •  Produces internal budget-to-actual reports for active monitoring of projects and departmental spending.  Reviews expenditures for proper coding and award compliance and responds to inquiries from department heads and project managers.
  • Communicates with department heads on any unusual budget variances or reclassifications that may be needed.  Collaborates with the   Staff Accountant to ensure reclassifications are properly supported and recorded as may be appropriate.
  • Provide operational support to project managers on expenditure management to include short-term action plans and expenditure scheduling
  • Regular review meetings with Project Managers and Country representative to resolve and discuss budget variance and donor reporting issues and queries.

1. Compliance to donors and organizational  policies and procedures

• • Assist with systematic and ad-hoc analysis of project costs as a basis for evaluation, budgeting and operational research studies.
  • Seek ways to improve timeliness and quality of service provided by finance and assist in systems improvement.
  • Focus person for donor based audit
  • Participate in internal audits as scheduled and in external audits by providing auditors with accounting documents as requested and providing explanations for audit queries.
  • Maintains donors records in the electronics files for audit-readiness.
  • Alerts management to any financial or contractual compliance issues.
  • Provides guidance to project implementing staff and partners as needed on general financial policies and procedures, forms utilization, and expense reporting best practices for audit-ready submissions to Finance.
  •  Provides general support to the work of the Finance Manager, Operation Director, and Country Director as may be required.